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NAMB, Send Relief's exhibit: Sending hope

DALLAS (BP) -- The North American Mission Board's exhibit featured its Send Relief compassion ministry as well as Send Network church planting emphasis at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Dallas.

The North American Mission Board’s exhibit at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Dallas invited attendees to write encouraging notes on postcards that will be sent to church planters and pastors across North America.

Photo by Hayley Catt

The North American Mission Board’s exhibit at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Dallas invited attendees to write encouraging notes on postcards that will be sent to church planters and pastors across North America.

Photo by Hayley Catt

"The overall theme is sending hope," NAMB director of events Lee Cunningham said. "We highlighted the five Send Relief focus areas and encouraged people to two calls to action: writing notes for church planters and recording a Gospel Conversation (GC) Challenge video. The exhibit design was made to bring these two things together across NAMB and Send Relief."

In the Send Network area of the NAMB exhibit, missionaries and leaders who serve throughout North America connected pastors and churches to their next opportunity to lead and live on mission. There were opportunities for attendees to share their latest gospel conversations by recording them as part of the GC Challenge at gcchallenge.com -- an evangelism initiative for pastors and their churches. Postcards were also placed for attendees to write encouraging messages to church planting missionaries.

Sending Hope T-shirts were given out to attendees who recorded a GC Challenge video or filled out postcards.

"The postcards were a brilliant idea," said an International Mission Board missionary who visited the booth. "I was given a bunch to take home to my church family so we may fill them out. Whoever thought of this idea was really smart. As a missionary, I need all the prayer I can get, so it was cool to see that fellow missionaries will soon be receiving notes and cards from people praying for and thinking of them."

A military chaplain recorded his gospel conversation with a woman in the Army Reserves who struggles with her identity and purpose.

"We've had over a hundred gospel conversations shared on video this week," said Jackson Harris, NAMB videographer. "Many came and were just so excited to share what they'd experienced lately. We also had hundreds of people fill out postcards with prayers that we will now mail to the planters and pastors. It was busy but really great."

In the Send Relief exhibit area, attendees saw what compassion ministries in their church could look like.

From photos featuring disaster response in Puerto Rico and Texas to women being rescued from human trafficking, attendees saw what Send Relief does in North America and learned how their churches can be part of it.

The primary purpose of the Send Relief exhibit was to raise awareness of the five focus areas of Send Relief and give attendees the opportunity to sign-up to receive more information for next steps.

"Most of the people who came to the Send Relief exhibit asked about foster care," said Greg Teffertiller, marketing director of Send Relief. "Specifically, they asked about how to develop support systems within their churches and communities to grow foster care awareness and support systems for those involved.

"It's an important issue and one of the many facets of Send Relief," he said. "We were glad so many people were curious as to what mercy ministries they could bring back to their churches and communities. Many had knowledge of the issues but needed next steps for solving the issues. Send Relief is equipped to help them do that."

Send Relief missionary Lorna Bius gave advice and shared stories of her life on the mission field.

"I have been telling people what I was told years ago, 'You need a coalition of the willing to start a mercy ministry,'" she said. "A coalition of the willing is a group of people pumped about an issue and dedicated to making an issue nonexistent through support, time, resources and love. First you find those people, then you build the ministry -- that was my advice and the point of many of my life's stories I shared at the exhibit."

NAMB President Kevin Ezell noted, "We always look forward to visiting with pastors and church members at our exhibit each year. This was a great opportunity for us to share how we can help them take the hope of the Gospel to their community and beyond."

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